Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Vermont pays farmers not to produce phosphorus
Creating pollution is often cost-free and getting rid of it can be costly, so no wonder humans generate so much. The "market based solution" (i.e., channeling humanity's endless greed) is either to make pollution expensive, which is the idea of fines and mandates, or...
Hybrid school, hybrid work, why not hybrid play?
Note: This story ran Monday. The same day, the concert was postponed a month because of COVID. Sigh .... Almost 300 people could be sitting in the Bank of NH Stage this week to watch a rocking country show on the stage, but the real question is: How many will also be...
Follow that raindrop to the sea!
A raindrop falling in New London, N.H. flows west to the Connecticut River and down to Long Island Sound. If it fell a few miles east in Warner, it would flow east to the Merrimack River and down to the Gulf of Maine. How do I know this? Because of a very cool...
N.H. patents through Jan. 9
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Jan. 2 to Jan. 9. *** Atrium Medical Assigned Patent for Chest Drainage Systems, Methods Atrium Medical, Merrimack, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,213,617, initially...
A benefit of climate change? Great Bay oysters may be spawning earlier
There are indications that as waters warm in the Great Bay, oysters may be spawning earlier than in the past, helping efforts to replenish this important species. The finding "suggests that spat brought in to augment current sites of active restoration should be...
Move 19 tons and what do you get?
(NOTE: I used to live in coal country, hence that potentially confusing headline referencing a Tennessee Ernie Ford song) There are a couple of drawbacks to New Hampshire geology. One is that we don’t have fossils – they were all melted by our igneous rocks or scraped...
Dartmouth prof wants some old ice – *really* old ice
Dartmouth Engineering has been named a collaborator on a new National Science Foundation effort to locate Antarctica's oldest ice and learn more about how the Earth's climate has changed throughout history. The Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX), will be...
Police surveillance tech in N.H.
Interesting story in the Monitor about pushback against police surveillance of the public. The whole article is here. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Atlas of Surveillance uses public information and an army of student journalists to document the tools that local...
Everybody else is seeing climate change, why not Mount Washington?
Until now, research showed Mount Washington’s summit had not yet tipped towards a significant warming trend. But a new study of the Mount Washington Observatory's data set reveals summit annual temperatures are increasing at a statistically significant rate. You can...
Vermont faces the “EVs don’t pay gas tax” question
Vermont, like many places, is looking at how to pay for roads as we get more electric vehicles, which don't pay gasoline tax. About 20 states have an annual EV "registration fee" - New Hampshire is considering one - but that's a pretty clumsy mechanism. VTDigger had a...
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Science Cafe NHAbout Granite Geek
Dave Brooks has written a science/tech column since 1991 – yes, that long – and has written this blog since 2006, keeping an eye on topics of geekish interest in and around New Hampshire, from software to sea level rise, population dynamics to printing (3-D, of course). He moderates monthly Science Cafe NH discussions, beer in hand, and discusses the geek world regularly on WGIR-AM radio..
Brooks earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics but got lost on the way to the Ivory Tower and ended up in a newsroom. He has reported for newspapers from Tennessee to New England. Rummage through his bag of awards you’ll find oddities like three Best Blog prizes from the New Hampshire Press Association and a Writer of the Year award from the N.H. Farm and Forest Bureau, of all places. He joined the Concord Monitor in 2015.